38. With October nearly gone we were now into our
4th weekend Moose Hunting on the Southern Shore trying to fill Matthew's either
sex tags. We've had great success in our favourite area near Ferryland and
spotted lots of animals but to date have been unsuccessful in filling the tags.

37. This weekend we stepped up our game as Mark
and I were offered a not for profit/charity license for area 36-Southern Shore
to fill. These licenses are issued to registered not for profit organizations
across the island so they can harvest an animal to process and use for meals
within the charitable organization. They are Either Sex, Party licenses assigned
to different areas across the island. This meant that Mark and I could both
carry big game rifles following the party license rules set out in the 2018 NL
Provincial Hunting Guide.

36. Early Saturday morning Mark, Matthew, Michael
Stroh and I headed down the Southern Shore to Ferryland. We began our hunt at
daybreak watching the sun come up beautifully over the horizon. Matthew and
Stroh went left on the pole line to the area George harvested his animal opening
day. Mark and I planned to go to the top of the big hill but found another
hunter already there so we headed further down the pole line to a totally
different area under the hill.

35.

34. Unfortunately we didn't see any animals that
morning. I walked a lot of ground circling the head of Merrymeeting Pond and
back to the pole line without seeing fresh (current-1-2 day old) sign. Later
that morning the guy came down off the hill so Mark and I headed up there for a
look.

33. By that time Matthew and Stroh walked back
and met us for coffee poured from Mark's new Yeti Thermos. Mark stayed on as
lookout while Matthew set up on a nearby bog and Stroh and I walked an hour loop
up the large clearing where I shot my moose last year, circling counter
clockwise back an ATV trail through a bunch of cut overs to the bog Matthew was
set up on. This would drive anything in the woods out towards Matthew. Stroh and
I did find very fresh tracks near the top of the big clearing meaning that a cow
had crossed earlier that morning.

32. Not seeing anything we all headed back to
Mark and the Argo on top of the hill to prepare lunch. Matthew and I set about
starting a fire while Mark & Stroh ran back to the truck to grab our lunch
supplies.

31.

30. Today I simply boiled the kettle for Tea &
Coffee, Mark & Matthew were on lunch duty this trip.

29. On the menu today were white codfish puddings
& red blood puddings sliced and fried on a cast iron skillet. This was paired
with a pan of moose sausages topped with 2 cans of baked beans.

28.

27. We were all starved and couldn't wait for
everything to be cooked before devouring all of the puddings. They were amazing!

26. Mark recently purchased a new Primus Classic
Trail ISO gas stove, similar to my MSR superfly. Both area compact and work
quite well! Like the MSR, the Primus has a wide burner and works well to simmer
while cooking and can pump out 10,000 BTUs for rapid boil.

25.

24. We were just about to dig into the beans &
sausages when Mark spotted a cow crossing the large bog off in the distance
headed left to right!

23. The large bog right at the top of this pic is
approximately 1100 yards away so a shot was impossible & highly unethical. We
made a few calls with the caller but it had no effect this late in the year. We
watched carefully and soon spotted the animal on the pole line where it soon
crossed.

22. We figured the animal was headed towards the
head of Merrymeeting Pond so Stroh and I made a rapid descent of the hill and
headed in an old ATV path to cut her off. If we could see her we would make the
harvest, if not we would drive the animal back to the pole line where Matthew
was now stationed. Mark stayed on top of the hill to view the entire area.

21. After waiting quite awhile and hearing some
cracking in the woods, Stroh and I completed the loop of the ATV path ending up
on the pole line where the cow crossed earlier. On our way back the path we
startled the animal back out on the pole line less than 100 yards from Matthew
and he made a clean shot and quick effective harvest!

20.

19. Although our 2pm lunch was rudely interrupted
we were happy to have Matthew's tags filled.

18.

17.

16. We now have cleaning animals down pat using
the Argo as a tie down point so no-one has to hold legs etc.

15. In less than 15 minutes we had the animal
dressed, split and ready to load aboard the machine.

14. This new Outdoor Edge knife I picked up last
Christmas is absolutely fantastic. It uses a replaceable Exacto style blades
that are razor sharp and when avoiding bone lasts an incredibly long time. I
gutted this animal in the woods and skinned half the animal at home before the
blade stated to dull. The blades are easily changeable at any time, the knife
came with 5 spares and replacements can be purchased at any local hunting shop.
This knife also features a swing out gutting blade that works fantastic. Look
for a product review soon!

13.

12. With the animal loaded in the Argo, Matthew,
Stroh and I walked out to the next bog to grab a few photos before jumping
aboard.

11. The Argo hauled the moose, four fellas, three
rifles & 3 knapsacks & cooking gear back to the truck with ease in one trip!

10. Back in town we hung the animal in Harry's
garage and quickly set about skinning it.

9.

8.

7. Arch dropped down to lend a hand and lots of
fellas stopped by throughout the evening to see the harvest and hear the story
of an awesome hunt.

6. On Monday evening we headed back to Harry's to
process the animal. We dropped off 2 rear quarters to be properly butchered
while we would take care of the 2 fronts.

5. Matthew, Arch, Mark and I set about cutting up
the two front quarters by separating the legs, separating out the individual
muscle groups, and then trimming out all the tough connecting tissues. The boys
make use of ground meat most often so we chose to grind all of the front
quarters while roasts would be garnered by the butcher from the rear's

4. Mark brought his Kitchen Aid stand mixer with
meat grinding attachment and it worked absolutely fantastic grinding the meat in
no time. We used a medium disc and medium speed and had no trouble grinding all
of the meat in short order.

3.

2. Using a kitchen scale we bagged the meat in 2lb
medium freezer bags which will make for a great meal size portion. If you need
more you grab a second bag.

1. At the end of the night we netted 52lbs of fresh
ground moose leaving only the well scraped bones behind. This year we are going
to try our hands at making moose sausages, rounds and maybe a few hamburgers
bagged up as prepared meals. All in all it was an excellent and successful hunt.
Stay tuned as Bassan is hunting in Trepassey while Mark and I still have the
charity licence tags to fill as well!